


Hostages of Mars

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Barsoom - Edgar Rice Burroughs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-24
Updated: 2007-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-25 05:22:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1633706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dejah Thoris/Thuvia adventure, femslash, pre-series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hostages of Mars

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Loligo

 

 

>   
>  _All Barsoom knows the story of how John Carter, stranger from another world and the greatest hero  
>  Barsoom has ever known, returned after ten long years in which all mourned him as dead to emerge from the  
> depths of that hideous false paradise ruled over by the therns, bringing with him out of captivity our young son,  
> Carthoris, as well as the beautiful daughter of the Jeddak of Ptarth, Thuvia, who had there been enslaved._
> 
> It is known also that this maiden swore at once to serve me and we remained fast friends through many trials, and even after being at last reunited with her father, the fair daughter of Ptarth remained a frequent guest at our court. And though at first Thuvia had loved my husband, John Carter—as what woman would not—in time she came instead to love Carthoris, and at length became his bride. 
> 
> __
> 
> There is more to the story, however, and sometimes as I observe my small daughter sleeping, I wonder if I should one day tell her of it, for given her foreign heritage, the blood of another world flowing in her veins, who knows what strange course my Tara may eventually pilot? Perhaps when she is older, I might whisper to her the details of how this friendship truly began, many long years before, for it may serve to give my daughter some sense of the many possibilities remaining in this dying world of ours. 
> 
> __
> 
> Or perhaps it will remain locked in the chambers of my heart, a secret known only to myself and one other. For this is the tale of how Dejah Thoris, granddaughter of a thousand jeddaks, first knew love... and humility.
> 
> __  
> 
> 
> * * *
> 
> The women's quarters of the palaces of Thuvan Dihn, Jeddak of Ptarth, were warmly lit by the scented oil lamps that hung from golden chains all around the round central room of the tower, where Thuvia, the jeddak's daughter, whiled away the time with her handmaidens for company—the loveliest and most pleasant of the local nobles' daughters. Between the piles of embroidered silken cushions, the many golden and copper ornaments, the carved screens of exotic wood and the roaring of the flames in the broad fireplace, large enough to roast a calot, should such an ugly creature be admitted to such fair company, it might have been a scene of splendor to one who had not been surrounded by such sights from birth, as had I.
> 
> Yes, I, Dejah Thoris, descended of an unbroken line of ten thousand jeddaks, was unimpressed by the hospitality that I had received as we reached the southernmost point on my father's itinerary. As my grandfather, Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium, was engaged in some vital matters of state regarding tensions with the neighboring city of Zodanga, already at that time our enemy, my father, Mors Kajak, Jed of Lesser Helium, had been deputized to make a tour of our allies and dependents, even unto the farthest reaches, which often seemed—for I was quite young at the time, a mere three hundred years or so—distressingly provincial. 
> 
> I pined for the sophisticated company of my familiar friends in the court of Helium, and although I did my best to behave in a manner befitting an honored guest, I am afraid that on the night on which my strange and secret tale begins, I was all too aware of my condescension in visiting the daughter of a Jeddak of such a remote kingdom, and not concealing my boredom with the surroundings nearly as much as one would wish. 
> 
> Thuvia, a beautiful girl, if somewhat shy and formal, had sensed my mood and was attempting, rather than ply me with questions about life in gay Helium, to pursue a game of Barsoomian chess with one of her cleverer ladies in waiting. The others either watched with varying degrees of interest or lounged upon the carved benches or by the fire. A few of them were holding hands, as intimate friends are wont to do, and occasionally kissing each other upon the cheek or lips. Such displays are generally reserved for family and I was surprised to see them carried out so publically, but this was far Ptarth, after all a land which bordered on near-mythical Kaol, and I supposed I should be grateful they did not merely drape themselves in animal skins and dance by the light of the moons. 
> 
> A strange tone filled the tower room, as of a great bronze bell. A few of the girls screamed, and the chess piece flew out of young Thuvia's hand as she stood abruptly, her face white. 
> 
> "Not _again,_ " she cried. "Will he never cease? What more must it take until my father—" At this point she recollected the presence of a guest, and sealed her lips tightly. 
> 
> One of the plainer maids—indeed, she bore a scar from some dreadful burn, rendering what had once been lovely merely pleasant—indicated the fireplace. "The brand is ever ready," she observed with what seemed rather unwholesome enthusiasm. The mark across her own face lent her smile a sneering quality. "Zel Toma would not be so quick to abduct a princess whose face made him avert his eyes."
> 
> Thuvia turned away from it. "I am not yet ready to make such a choice," she said. "Who is he that a jeddak's daughter should mar herself for him? We have armies, laws, brave men willing to lay down their lives..."
> 
> The scarred maid looked almost disappointed, while another spoke: "Perhaps if the Jeddak were the one constantly hounded and abducted, he might direct more of his energies to ending this persecution and fewer of those brave men would be waking on the shores of the Lost Sea of Korus," the second girl observed boldly, shrinking back when Thuvia turned on her with cold dignity.
> 
> "My father always and at once goes to great pains to subdue his enemies and recapture all prisoners," she reproved. 
> 
> "Which you know very well he enjoys," argued the scarred one.
> 
> As the daughter of Thuvan Dihn appeared to have no reply to this, I could not resist giving voice to my indignant curiosity. I expected not much better from the maids, but for a jeddak's daughter even of so small a nation, Thuvia seemed to me very poor-spirited, even cowardly, or to have little faith in the fighting men of her own city, to so tremble at the mere thought of a clash of arms. Surely it was her place to bear such interruptions bravely and with dignity, as no real harm would come of them. 
> 
> Standing with one shoulder carelessly against a tall carved pillar to suggest ease, I asked her, "If your father the Jeddak will punish an intruder swiftly, why then such..." I wished not to insult my hostess, so I hesitated to use the word 'fear.' "Disturbance? It is a tedious interruption to be used as a pawn in what is ultimately a larger dispute, no doubt, but I should have thought it hardly worth your concern." Ah, had I any idea at that time what a round of abductions I too was to experience in later years, perhaps I would have been more sympathetic!
> 
> Thuvia turned to me, her face flushed, but with anger, not with shame. She had heard the word I did not speak. "We cower not in foolish fear like elats in a cage at the sound of the wind," she said. "Zel Toma, jed of our neighbor city, Eparsa, grows ever more importunate with his abductions, and where any man would fear the vengeance of Thuvan Dihn and allow no real harm to come to me or any of my household, he appears to be growing increasingly unstable, and even dangerously insane. Into the hands of such a man it is never pleasant to fall, and on the judgment of such a man one would prefer not to have one's safety and honor depend. Perhaps this time will be when he finally crosses the boundaries of civilized behavior; I do not know. 
> 
> "Besides," she continued, taking a step forward earnestly as though she had reached the meat of her argument, "once he sees you are here, O Princess, he will certainly abduct you as well, and then my father and all Ptarth will be greatly shamed before your father, the great Mors Kajak, and what dreadful wars might result should Zel Toma harm you in any way do not bear thinking about. Why, the entire southern lands might be devastated; and from the blow to our city's honor we would never recover." 
> 
> I laughed, albeit a little uncertainly. "But surely he would not dare, with my father and his cruisers here at hand, at full readiness. He may be eccentric, but madmen do not rule."
> 
> "His madness has been increasing," Thuvia said grimly. "It is said that after his most recent battle, he laughed as a physician reattached his ear." 
> 
> I frowned. "But surely that is a sign of valor?"
> 
> The ladies in waiting who had gathered around us held each other in support and shuddered, as ones familiar with the tale. "After the physician had finished his work," Thuvia explained, "Zel Toma then drew his sword and cut off one of the physician's ears, and laughed just as heartily."
> 
> I was shocked. Such behavior ran counter to everything I had been taught about a ruler's obligation to protect the welfare of his retainers and subjects, and the physicians who return our warriors to health are greatly valued. "If this is true, he must indeed be mad," I agreed, eyes wide. "And you say this man is even now assaulting the palace?"
> 
> "When the bell sounds, his minions have reached the tower," Thuvia said sadly, turning to face the door. "I hope that some of the guards may escape their bullets this time." 
> 
> Such brave men, in such senseless slaughter! "Why does your father permit this?" I cried, forgetting that I was a guest in Thuvan Dihn's halls, and also that I had myself scoffed at the women's fears just before. "Can it not be made too troublesome an endeavor for this mad prince to pursue?" 
> 
> "Perhaps if his men cannot find you, O Princess," suggested one of the girls who had hitherto remained silent. 
> 
> Thuvia shook her head. "And have him take out his revenge upon you, my friends, instead? No, I must go with them. But then... ah, then..." A strange light came into her eye, and she turned, thoughtfully. "Princess," she said to me, deferentially, "I know it is a strange notion, but would you..." 
> 
> Whatever she had been about to propose I was not to learn at that time, for the doors burst open, and an armed party of blood-daubed raiders quickly surrounded us, as the noble maidens screamed and fled in every direction, cowering in the shadows. I wondered why the Eparsans had not darkened their skins for the night assault, but I shortly saw demonstrated the peculiar strategy employed instead by this cunning people.
> 
> One stepped forward from the group, dressed in strange gear—cloth coverings cloaked him to his neck such as are worn by the men of Jasoom (or Earth, as John Carter, the man who later became my husband, calls it), with a hood covering his head and goggles over his eyes, making his appearance monstrous in the extreme. As I stared in astonishment at the spectacle, he pushed his goggles up to his forehead, revealing an evil, narrow face tracked and traced with the indefinable stamp of debauchery. The discipline of command sat atop it, promising us some possible security, should the animal within not be tempted too far. "Thuvia, daughter of Thuvan Dihn, and Dejah Thoris, daughter of Mors Kajak, will come with me," he announced, gesturing with his pistol. 
> 
> Thuvia inclined her head and said, "Olan Kes, take myself and the princess of Helium hostage if you must, for I know your lord has so commanded you, but please, spare at least the younger sister of Dejah Thoris, for she is frightened by such rough men and has hidden with the others." 
> 
> I am afraid my expression betrayed my confusion, for none of my brothers or sisters had accompanied me on this journey, but when the man named as Olan Kes turned to me in question, I blankly raised a hand as in confirmation of her words. Thuvia had some scheme in mind, I realized, as the man turned away and began issuing orders. "Take the two girls onto the flier, whilst I search this den of soraks for the younger princess," he said, in a sneering voice which was peculiarly unpleasant. The Eparsans laughed as they moved to do his bidding. 
> 
> Thuvia caught my eye as we were ushered out, and I found her presence strangely comforting, for never before had I been so treated, and suddenly her confidence was a support to me. "Courage, Princess," she whispered. 
> 
> After my earlier doubts of her, that put me on my mettle, as you can imagine. I held my head high as the two chosen guards ushered us out the door and down a short corridor lined with tapestries to a broad window, below which the deck of a small cruiser waited, lightless and unmanned but for the pilot. Stacks of the strange suits and goggles lay on the floor by this opening, and beside that, a pile of furs, which the brutes indicated that we should wrap ourselves in. 
> 
> "Ever Zel Toma's men escape my father's by flying high into the atmosphere, where the air is thin," Thuvia explained. "They wear this strange garb for protection against the bitter cold, and that their skin may not reflect the searchlights during night attacks. They remove the suits for the actual fighting, as the cloth hampers their movements during swordplay. We shall be held inside the main cabin, so the furs will keep us warm enough." 
> 
> I did not wish to accept this mockery of hospitality, but suffering the extreme cold of the upper air without protection did not appeal either, so as Thuvia knelt beside the pile of furs, I held back, frowning and confused. The brute nearest me repeated his orders and made as if to seize my arm. Outraged, I turned to strike him, crying, "You dare touch the person of Dejah Thoris of Helium!" Fear crossed his bestial features, and he backed away, fearing perhaps, as well he should, future retribution from my father and grandfather. 
> 
> "I will carry her furs," Thuvia said to the men, demurely. "Do you but leave it to me, and I shall make sure she dons them when the time comes." 
> 
> I cast her a look of great surprise, wondering if her seeming courage had failed her in truth, but she merely stood there with a calm face, a slim princess holding a great pile of furs in her arms with the patience of a slave.
> 
> Doubting anew, I followed her under the eyes of the enemy guards, stepping out through the great stone arch of the window onto the deck of the cruiser that hovered beside the tower that held the women's quarters. The night air already was bitter cold compared to that of Helium, which lay further north, and I almost regretted repulsing the offer of furs, but pride demanded that I hold my head high and suppress my shivers. The palace grounds below were dark save for the lights and torches of fighting men, and I heard shouts and the clash of arms, while searchlights had only just begun to sweep the sky. The attack had taken the Ptarthians by surprise. 
> 
> The two guards ushered us to a cabin on the deck of the cruiser, in which they shut us without ceremony. At once Thuvia turned to me, dropping the furs on the floor and revealing that beneath them she had carried also two sets of the strange flying suits. "Now!" she said quietly. "If we disguise ourselves, perhaps we may be able to escape."
> 
> I grasped then the swift presence of mind with which she had formed this plan and seized her opportunity, and wished to apologize for imagining that she had been cowed by our circumstances, but I was still too full of my consequence to do so, I suppose, and merely whispered, "Indeed, you are clever, Thuvia!" 
> 
> She inclined her head and blushed becomingly, her red cheeks darkening to ruby, as she held out one of the strange suits to me. I still hesitated to surround my skin, that had known only silks and furs and the smooth leather of my harness, with the rough material. But where this young daughter of a provincial jeddak led, who would say Dejah Thoris did not dare follow? Quickly I draped myself in the unpleasant sack and bound it into place, pleating the material several times at my waist and belting it tightly, for though the men of Eparsa are small beside the men of Helium, still the suit was considerably too large, and there was much extra cloth to be dealt with. Thuvia, taller than I, but just as slender and of feminine shape, folded and belted her suit similarly. I had difficulty with the hood as well, but my hair had been dressed loosely for evening, and so I rapidly removed a few jeweled pins and lowered the black tresses down inside the loose disguise, fastening the hood up then without difficulty, and reluctantly pulling on the goggles. 
> 
> Rough voices outside made us freeze, as Thuvia stood in the act of piling the furs on the sleeping couch in a bulky shape as if we had taken our rest together underneath. "But where is the sister of the princess?" one asked.
> 
> "There is no sister here," replied the voice of Olan Kes, his barely controlled anger evident. "The other maids confessed it to us. Thuvia of Ptarth merely wished to delay us in hopes that her father's men might win through to the tower. We must leave at once; go you and make sure our captives have wrapped their furs well and will survive the cold. If any damage comes to the princess of Helium, Zel Toma will have my ears."
> 
> "He may anyway," the guard replied, and they parted.
> 
> Thuvia motioned me to a spot behind the door, which I reached just before it opened. The guard entered, saw our pile of furs, and approached it, a disrespectful leer on his brutish countenance. Nimbly we slipped around the edge of the door and closed it behind us, and Thuvia fastened it so that he could not come out. 
> 
> "I have had more than one opportunity to observe the workings of this lock," she said. 
> 
> Keeping our heads down, we made our way rapidly across the deck. By day, it would not have answered, but in the darkness, with every man busy at his task, there was some confusion, and we reached our goal unnoticed, which I discovered to be a flier of sorts, big enough to support a small cabin, but built for speed. Thuvia bent to disengage its moorings, and I knelt beside her, that my small height be not as evident. 
> 
> "You! Who are you and what are you doing?" a man demanded from behind us. 
> 
> Thuvia continued at her task without looking up. In a hoarse, deep voice, she replied, "I am Ban Tham, padwar in Zel Toma's personal guard. Olan Kes ordered me to make sure his private flier is secure to the deck." Saying so, she broke off and gave several deep coughs, as if her throat troubled her. 
> 
> "Better to hurry, then," was the guardsman's only reply, and he left us. Thuvia finished her work and then we crept onto the deck of the flier, pressing our bodies low. With gestures, Thuvia indicated that we should tie ourselves with the leather straps used by some pilots for difficult maneuvers; we did so hastily, for our escape was bound to be noted at any moment, and then with a decisive press of her slim finger on the button that controlled the ray of repulsion, my companion pulled hard upon the speed lever and in near silence, we rose straight up into the dark night air, so rapidly that the deck of the cruiser dwindled beneath my eyes to a mere speck below. 
> 
> Thuvia turned to me then and checked that the straps that bound me in safety were secure. I found her remarkable for her self-possession, as well as her quick wits and bravery, and felt great admiration for the girl, who was my companion in this extremity. I smiled at her as I stood in the circle of her arms, and she pulled away as if abashed. 
> 
> "Now, Princess," she said. "They will come in search of us momentarily. Can you pilot a flier?"
> 
> "I can keep one in the air, perhaps," I replied, for I had never troubled to learn much more than that. There had always been someone eager to perform that service, after all. I vowed on the spot that my daughter would learn to fly, should I be one of the dwindling number of Barsoomian women blessed eventually with an egg. 
> 
> "That will do," Thuvia said with gentle humor. "Watch this gauge and this dial carefully, and call to me if there is any change." As I did so, she entered the small cabin, returning shortly thereafter with a radium pistol and sighting device in her hands, and a long-sword buckled to her hip. It had been but a moment, but I had found the darkness of the upper air very different without her. Our craft seemed tiny, here far above the earth, and it was a very strange experience to wait alone in the silence and the cold while the shadows of the ships far below moved about like a herd of thoats, reversing at last and growing larger again as they approached.
> 
> "They will assume we have fled towards Ptarth, although with their swifter one-man fliers they would surely overtake us before we could reach the walls," Thuvia explained, sighting the pistol in that direction. With the aid of the wireless finder circling beyond the tip of the barrel, she chose a target above the city wall and closed the trigger. A tiny flame and then a greater puff of smoke went up, visible in the light of the smaller moon, which was just rising. It illumined as well the edge of a small smile upon her face. "I hope that smoke may draw their attention in that direction; and also that my father will forgive me for the minor damage." 
> 
> It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her that her father should beg her forgiveness for having allowed her to be put in this dangerous situation, but I recalled some fraction of my manners and did not. Instead, I rallied her as she holstered the weapon: "You have excellent aim—Ban Tham, padwar of Eparsa." 
> 
> She started in surprise, and then her fingers flew to the insignia on the dark flight suit, gleaming in the moonlight, and instantly she ripped it off and threw it over the side. "Ban Tham, padwar of Ptarth. Or in service to Helium—if Dejah Thoris will have me."
> 
> "I accept your oath, padwar," I said loftily. "Ban Tham, I take you into the service of Dejah Thoris, princess of Helium." It was but foolishness, a game, and we giggled; but I appreciated the spirit that could remain playful in the face of such danger, and I was pleased—even happy—to have her at my side. 
> 
> "We must descend now, and hope that they do not think to look for us in the same place we made our escape," she said, laying her hands once more on the controls. "Hold on tightly." 
> 
> I gripped a handhold on one side and flung my other arm about the curve of her waist, prepared for anything. She stiffened as in surprise, then firmed her chin and pulled the lever of speed again. This time we dropped like a stone, plummeting through the night air, and I had to stifle a small scream of surprise. The ground far below rose rapidly up to meet us, as did the approaching Eparsan ships, and I realized that thus did Thuvia hope we might travel so quickly as to yet be unobserved.
> 
> When we had dropped below the range easily observed by the small fleet, she steered us sharply to one side, and in the growing light of the smaller moon as it began its race across the sky we dropped into a canyon, tipping this way and that at dreadful speed as we careened along in the partial cover of its walls, skimming at last to a resting place on the side of a great cliff, with barren rock falling away on either side and an overhang above to hide our presence. 
> 
> "Oh, but you are a skilled pilot indeed!" I cried, embracing her in delight. 
> 
> "Merely lucky," she responded gravely. "I must admit, I had not full control of the vessel at any point. I should not have taken such risks with Dejah Thoris on board."
> 
> I surprised her then by breaking out into peals of laughter. "Luck or skill, I had rather be at the side of one who had either in such great quantity! Look you, the flier is steady upon this ledge, and had we sought for hours for a safer place to take our rest, we could not have found it. Even the light of the moons will not discover us to our pursuers, at least until they return from Ptarth, and surely by then our fathers will be giving chase."
> 
> I had reckoned without the cunning of the mad prince of Eparsa, for he had caused a false trail to be laid, that led my father and Thuvan Dihn to believe we had been abducted eastward, instead, so that they might spend ships and attention fruitlessly in the wrong direction while Zel Toma searched for our stolen craft to the west of Ptarth. But I did not yet know this, and so felt quite at ease. 
> 
> Thuvia and I removed the unpleasant outer coverings that had formed our disguise, and stretched ourselves upon the deck under a pile of sleeping furs she had found in the cabin. She had been led there before, she explained, by Olan Kes, who had attempted to impress her with the fineness of its furnishings. "I believe he desired me himself, and might have offered to run away with me had I wished it, for the mad prince's arm is long." She shuddered. "I hope this final outrage may move my father to take decisive action, for although he is certainly no coward, he values his allies, and ever tries to preserve peace among the peoples of the south." 
> 
> "You have been very patient, as well as very brave," I observed. What discomforts and indignities she must have suffered, persecuted by such a man as Zel Toma was said to be! Nestling together in the furs on the deck of the captured flier against the sheer cliff face far above the lonesome canyon, however, it was difficult to feel any distress. I had instead a pleasant sense of adventure, as when one is a child and spends the night bedded down in some disused antechamber, pretending that one has been exploring other planets and fleeing from strange beasts behind the tapestries. 
> 
> "Never have I been easily moved to displays of fear, nor to tears or laughter," she admitted. "Nor quickly moved to anger; although quick enough, it seems, to love—." and with this she broke off. The last words were spoken so quietly I barely heard them, and their meaning was not clear to me until later. 
> 
> Despite the evening's exertions, I found it difficult to sleep, as the spirit of danger confronted still warmed my blood. And the same spirit moved my fair companion, judging by how tightly she held my hands when I sought hers before drifting at last into slumber.
> 
> The day dawned swiftly as ever, and I heard musical sounds behind me as I sat up and pushed back the furs. The sunlight, already warm, lay on my bare shoulders, as I pinned up my hair and then slid easily off the deck of the flier, straightening my jeweled harness and replacing a few ornaments. Then I turned and beheld the great canyon that stretched out below and beyond, paved of course with the ochre moss that covers most of Barsoom's surface, the air thick with the golden light of morning. In the distance, great shapes soared, strange creatures much like winged lizards, but three times the size of a man, and with impressive wingspan. 
> 
> It had not been light long, but Thuvia had already roused herself. Just before me at the edge of the cliff she stood, hands raised above her head as if in salute, and in the air before her wheeled a crowd of smaller winged creatures, with curved, spindly legs and long, curled tails. As the sunlight passed through the membranes of their wings, which stretched from wrist to wrist, different colors emerged, of warm but pure tones, as if leather had been dyed somehow with ruby, emerald, or any of many other jewels. 
> 
> Thuvia turned as I approached, and gave me a warm smile, the first true smile of hers that I had seen. It lifted her noble face far above its previous stern beauty, or so it seemed to me, and made her appear closer to her true youth, although she retained her air of command, as of the jeddara of some great kingdom, and not merely remote Ptarth. "They will dance for you, Princess," she said, turning back to the fragile creatures, and exhorted them in strange musical tones to ever greater heights of display. They spread their wings and formed patterns, darting and intertwining their tails in midair, as the shifting colors fell across our faces and the cliff below. At last a cry from the giant winged lizards hunting on the far side of the valley broke the silence, and the creatures scattered.
> 
> "Know you those beasts?" I asked, puzzled, for although most can convey their wishes mentally to riding thoats or pets, raised by man and trained since birth, wild creatures cannot be compelled in this manner, except perhaps by the Holy Therns or some rare red man or woman gifted with a great domination of will. 
> 
> Thuvia lowered her arms and shook her head. "I think I have seen their like before, in the distance, but they are shy, and avoid the city. I have often found I have a sympathy with wild things, however. I am never sure if they do my bidding or merely accept my presence, but I can feel..." she trailed off and shrugged her shoulders. "Life," she concluded simply. 
> 
> "I have heard of such," I said, wishing to put her at ease, and the talk moved swiftly to tales of Helium, for my beloved city's fame has not lessened over the years, and Thuvia wished to hear of it.
> 
> In the midst of a very amusing tale about one of my brothers and a sorak that had crept in and hidden itself in his flier somehow, I broke off with a gasp. Dark flat shapes moved away from us across the canyon floor: the shadows of fliers overhead, leaving Ptarth in the direction of Eparsa after a long night of battle. 
> 
> I hoped, of course, that they were under the direction of my father, Mors Kajak, come in search of me; and Thuvia, no doubt, hoped for the battle fleet of Thuvan Dihn. But when the cruisers had come far enough past us for their colors, singed and torn, to be read, they were revealed as Eparsans, and there, indeed, was the flagship that carried Zel Toma. 
> 
> "By our first ancestor. They will see us!" cried Thuvia, and returning to the flier, she commenced to struggle back into the strange costume that had served to disguise us both the night before. 
> 
> "Perhaps they will merely pass over without spotting us," I argued, ever the more optimistic of the two. Had we not been heroic—did we not deserve to win our way home and a feast of welcome when we did so? Surely our luck could not fail us now. "However, were we to be recaptured, and should Zel Toma prove mad indeed—I have always this," I said, and I showed her the dagger I kept concealed in my harness. It was small, but it would serve its final office if needed, and preserve my person from dishonor.
> 
> "I hope it shall not come to that," Thuvia said grimly. "Still; we may as well strap ourselves in again." 
> 
> This seemed sound advice, and I did as she bade. 
> 
> "Why do you dress yourself again in that disfiguring costume?" I asked her, as we waited, hardly daring to move.
> 
> "They do not know that we escaped by ourselves," she explained. "They more likely believe that we have been spirited away by some ambitious officer, who desired one or both or perhaps saw his chance to claim a reward from Mors Kajak, your father. If they see what appears to be that man and only one of his captives, they may falter and divide their search."
> 
> The fleet was nearly out of sight, and our freedom secure, when there was the flash of light off the lens of a spyglass, and the fleet began almost at once to reverse. We had been discovered.
> 
> "And still I do not see ships of Helium or Ptarth," I said, alarmed. Thuvia merely gave a brief warning and then pressed again the button that released the power of the eighth ray. We rose above the lip of the canyon and shot eastward in the direction of Ptarth, climbing as we went, for Thuvia was trying now for distance as well as speed. 
> 
> The small battle fleet behind us gave chase, and some of the smaller ships rapidly began to gain. Using Olan Kes' pistol, I fired at our pursuers, puncturing one or two buoyancy tanks and watching in satisfaction as the fliers dropped out of the chase, following erratic courses to the barren ground far below. I realized then that they dared not fire at us, even to cripple, as our worth as hostages would become mere disaster to Zel Toma were death to befall us, for my father would not rest until the vengeance of Helium had destroyed Eparsa down to its individual stones. I lost my taste for the game after that, and returned the weapon to Thuvia. "We shall be overtaken soon," I called over the sound of the rushing wind. She lowered her head and at first made no reply. Then a strange sound issued from her throat, musical and deep, yet harsh. 
> 
> "Rise! Rise!" she called, and other words I could not make out, and then she sang with no words at all, and I, thinking she sought to raise our spirits, joined in, beginning the battle anthem that the women of Helium sing to encourage their warriors to victory. I soon saw the true purpose of her words, however, as behind us, leathery shapes rose up from the canyon where we had sheltered, and on their great wings the giant hawklike lizards—as well perhaps as a few of their tiny, colorful cousins—wove among and before the small one-man fliers that pursued us, fouling their propellers and blocking their progress. 
> 
> I laughed again, to see the enemy so thwarted. It was likely that we still would be overtaken and captured, without a single warrior to bear arms in our service and make the boarders pay dearly for their victory, and yet, I could not find it in my heart to fear. For did not Ban Tham, padwar of Helium, fly at my side?
> 
> Thus does fancy lead us farther than we realize.
> 
> Despite the assistance from the strange beasts of the air, with their long, narrow wings and triangular fanged heads, soon once again a few streamlined fliers grew very close, on the verge of overtaking us. Thuvia, glancing over her shoulder, let out a gasp. "It is Zel Toma himself!" she said, pointing to one of the fliers. As if summoned by her fear, the largest of the flying beasts rose up directly behind our craft, spreading its wings, and Zel Toma was faced with a choice: collide with the creature, to his probable destruction; risk collision with the lead flier in his command, controlled by the hands of one of his best pilots, and on the verge of entering boarding range of our small vessel; or lower or raise his flier considerably, losing enough distance in the horizontal plane to be essentially out of the race.
> 
> Although his face was too small to read at that distance, I saw him hunch over the controls, and then his flier twisted left and right again, avoiding the great winged lizard and clipping the corner of the lead flier, sending it spinning out of control as he plowed through the air space it had previously held, advancing on us rapidly. 
> 
> Now it was my turn to gasp; and such was her anger and contempt that Thuvia positively scowled. "So, we shall be taken not by the greatest warrior, but by the most ruthless," she said, and turned her back on the shameful sight.
> 
> "Such a calot is not fit to rule!" I agreed. The walls of the cabin blocked us momentarily from his view, but I turned my back as well, standing at the side of the brave girl whom I had come to know so well in a short time. 
> 
> She sighed, looking at the approaching walls of Ptarth, promising safety that we might never reach. "Well, if we are to choose the dagger at last, I can think of no better company to meet my doom in but yours, my princess."
> 
> It seemed so natural that it was a moment before I even realized that I should be surprised, even shocked, greatly shocked, by what she had said. 'My princess'—no unaffianced red woman would allow these words to be said to her, except by the man who has won her heart. Whether she should allow them from a woman, well, the question had simply never crossed my mind. I thought suddenly of the girls in the firelight of the women's quarters of the household of Thuvan Dihn, and their brief, tender kisses in the shadows. Were the customs of far southern Ptarth so different from those of Helium? I had believed myself worldly, and yet, it seemed there was much still to learn. 
> 
> I had never thought to look on a woman's form with any but the admiration of a sister; but the red women of Barsoom are won above all by courage, and that, my young friend had displayed in abundance. I turned to her then, and saw her fear and resignation, her gallantry and beauty. I should have repudiated those words. Or I should, perhaps, have responded as to the noble padwar I had imagined, the valorous and faithful Ban Tham, and said, 'My chieftain.' 
> 
> "My princess," I whispered instead, as one in a dream; and her lips touched mine.
> 
> The kiss was sweet, and seemed to last an eternity, and yet it was in truth but a moment. We pulled reluctantly apart as the flier sailed up behind us and over, hovering. Thuvia drew the pistol and fired upwards at the steering mechanisms and the buoyancy tanks of the small craft, too intent upon her work to recoil at the grisly sight that now greeted us, for it seemed the unfortunate Olan Kes had lost not only his ears for his failure to deliver us, but his entire head, which, we now saw, had been taken to decorate the prow of Zel Toma's flier, the fastest in Eparsa. 
> 
> In another moment the metal clang of a grappling hook rang out, and then Thuvia dared not fire any more, for should the other ship fall, ours would be dragged down with it. With harsh laughter we could hear from where we stood, even over the whistling of the wind, Zel Toma descended on a rope, his sinewy legs outstretched. He had disdained to wear a flight suit, and clad in only his warrior's harness, brandishing a curved long-sword, he dropped lightly to the deck. 
> 
> Thuvia raised her hand to fire, and, hesitating, stood as one frozen in ice. I apprehended at once her dilemma. It is one of the most basic customs of Barsoom that a man attacked may only fight using a weapon of equal or lesser power. Approached with a sword, he might engage in return with another sword, a knife, a cudgel, or his fists, but not a pike or any projectile weapon. Thus Zel Toma could advance with drawn sword against a pistol in perfect confidence, knowing the man he faced could not shoot. 
> 
> This principle had been ingrained in us since birth. And yet, for a girl to fight such a duel, even if she had received some training in the arts of war as nobles' daughters often do, without the physical strength or a fraction of the deadly experience of a fighting man, hardly seemed a fair contest. Surely this was more like an attack from a maddened thoat or other wild creature, in which firing a pistol in one's defense was only natural. And yet... and yet... 
> 
> If she revealed herself and we surrendered, who knew what the mad prince might force upon us, once we were in his clutches? Of the rumors of his dreadful lusts and tortures, Thuvia had told me the night before, and we had agreed that death would be preferable. I loved her; I did not wish to see her destroy herself. Neither did I wish to die, if it were not truly necessary. If she fired, one foul beast would lie dead, and having outdistanced the pack, we should shortly return safely to the halls of Thuvan Dihn. If she tried to meet him blade to blade as he wished, he would quickly cut her down, and then after my death, the vengeance of the navy of Helium would wipe Eparsa from the face of Barsoom, blighting a no doubt innocent people. It seemed a simple choice.
> 
> And yet, Ban Tham would find it unthinkable to fire such a shot, no matter how logical. If Thuvia did so, I would understand, even applaud it; never could I blame her for such an act; and yet also could I no longer love her, and the kiss we had shared would lose its sweetness. From this distance perhaps that sounds like foolishness, but at that moment, with the soft imprint of her caress still fresh upon my lips, the thought was unbearable. 
> 
> I fancied I saw her face harden, and she firmed her grip on the pistol and began to take aim. I waited in desperate silence, determined not to influence her decision, but at the last moment, she turned her eyes my way, and read all my conflict at a glance. 
> 
> I say at a glance, but I believe it was more, for the people of Barsoom often communicate from mind to mind, especially between intimates, and I am certain that in that moment a great sympathy had risen up between us that allowed her to perceive my every thought and feeling on the matter.
> 
> She lowered the weapon; and in the eyes of my young champion was the same worship I was used to seeing in the eyes of the young nobles of Helium who paid me court, but tempered and softened—made both lesser and greater—by affection and understanding. "You prefer your dagger," she said. "Very well." And so saying, she cast the pistol to the deck, and drew the sword she carried at her hip. "Rather than lose you, I will die—as a warrior." 
> 
> I watched in mingled pride and horror as she stepped forward to engage with the madman, who, though not tall, bore all the marks of regular exercise and the scars of frequent fighting that even our best salves cannot erase. 
> 
> It was an ugly duel, not remarkable for its science. Although Thuvia gave a good account of herself, plying her weapon with skill and evading most of Zel Toma's swings, it was clear she could not prevail. Whenever Zel Toma's blade connected, she shuddered and fell back, and rarely did she manage to touch him, let alone wound him. "Why have you not bled me?" he cried once, laughing again. "You fight like the stripling you appear!" 
> 
> Thuvia merely lifted her head higher and prepared, with undaunted determination, although clearly tiring, to engage again. Frustrated with my own inability to influence the outcome, and indignant on my friend's behalf, that she must also bear insults as well as blows, I burst out in condemnation of Zel Toma's own fighting style, for it was clear that it had been long since any had dared criticize his swordsmanship to his face, and not only was his technique sloppy in the extreme, but he habitually left his left side entirely unguarded.
> 
> Zel Toma turned on me as I finished this speech, issuing a roar of rage and raising his weapon for a blow—proving his madness beyond all doubt, for to cut down an unarmed woman, noble or commoner, would be a terrible crime—and as he did so, Thuvia swung her own blade with all her force against his left side. The long-sword bit deep into the muscle there, and he toppled, sword still embedded in his side, falling gracelessly over the side of the flier to tumble through the air towards the rocks and moss of the dead sea bottoms that sped away below us as far as the eye could see.
> 
> I could feel no sorrow that such a madman had been removed from this life, and especially from his high position, with the power he had abused so greatly. Indeed, my only regret was that he shared his manner of death with company far above his deserts, as so many brave captains have died the same way, hurling themselves from the decks of their battleships as the voluntary signal of surrender. 
> 
> Thuvia and I turned to each other at last and reached to embrace again, but a broad, cold shadow fell across us. Looking upwards, I perceived it to be two ships, one flying the colors of Thuvan Dihn and Ptarth, the other those of Mors Kajak and Helium. Behind them and all around streamed other ships of the rescue fleet, pursuing the enemy forces back to Eparsa. A shot rebounded off the deck by the broken railing, and voices amplified from above ordered us to lay down our weapons and prepare for boarding. 
> 
> I was momentarily startled, but then realized they, too, believed Thuvia in her costume to be an officer of Eparsa, and most likely my kidnapper. "Lay down your weapon!" I echoed, turning back to her with a smile. "Oh, how I long to be held in my father's strong arms once again, after such an uncertain adventure!" 
> 
> Thuvia said nothing, but unbuckled the sword belt, as she had no sword to throw down, and placed it on the deck beside the abandoned radium pistol. 
> 
> "Do you remove your disguise, that they may see you are a friend, Princess," I continued excitedly.
> 
> A look of distress crossed my friend's fair face then, darkening it. "The title so shortly won, so quickly forgotten," she murmurred, searching my face for I know not what. Then she turned away. "I shall end our flight so that we may be easily boarded," she said, vanishing within the cabin. Shortly thereafter our flier came to a halt, dragging the abandoned flier of Zel Toma, with its grisly figurehead, beside us still on its tether. Once again I was alone on the deck, waiting in stillness, but this time rather than in perilous isolation far above a fleet of enemies, I waited, gazing upward happily, under several hundred eyes (and the two dead eyes of Olan Kes, but I did not look at them), below a welcoming fleet of friends. When Thuvia emerged from the cabin, a great shout went up from her father's flagship, for they had believed her still lost. 
> 
> The daughter of Ptarth had briefly dressed her hair and was wearing only her own jeweled harness revealed again, somewhat disarranged, baring her ruby skin to the sunlight, with the flight suit and goggles of her disguise bundled under one arm. Her graceful limbs bore a few glancing cuts sustained during the duel, which were bleeding slightly, and the sight of a girl wounded was so unfamiliar and unthinkable that for a moment I could scarcely react from horror, feeling more confusion than gratitude. Then I recollected that these wounds had been earned in my service, and my heart swelled with the same pride that ever urges women to the company of heroes. Thuvia approached. 
> 
> "As with the captain of any ship," she said, a small sad smile on her lips, and—cast the bundle over the side. 
> 
> I cried out, unthinking, as the trappings of my beloved Ban Tham plummeted to the dead sea bottom below. My hand outstretched, I would have stayed her action, but it was too late. 
> 
> I began to understand then, a little, what it was I had not said, and what the consequences had been. 
> 
> Boarding ladders were dangling about us, warriors in the private guard of the Jeddak of Ptarth had descended, and we were carried upwards with great deference to the ship of Thuvia's father: I, trying in vain to catch her eye, full of remorse, and she, gazing back instead in the direction of the canyon where we had sheltered together under the light of the moons. 
> 
> Our fathers greeted us with all the love and relief of strong men on seeing beloved members of their families return to safety—for it is a well-known fact that a man may be a ferocious fighter and yet be touched by the softer emotions in matters involving women and children, and of such metal is tempered my father, Mors Kajak, and also Thuvan Dihn.
> 
> Horrified by his daughter's wounds, the Jeddak of Ptarth went so far as to apologize to Thuvia for allowing the madman, Zel Toma, to so persecute her, for he had been absorbed in border disputes to the east and had not paid sufficient attention to the growing threat of Eparsa, believing each time that he had delivered sufficient punishment to ensure that such attacks would not happen again. "My mistake could have lost me the company of my only daughter, all that remains to me of her beloved mother," he said, vowing henceforth to protect her night and day, and never let her be cast into peril again. From her wan expression, Thuvia was pleased by the affection that underlay this vow, yet not entirely inspired by such a vision of the future. 
> 
> My own father merely embraced me; his feelings were too strong, and choked him so that he could not speak. He is a terrible force upon the battlefield, renowned throughout Barsoom as one of the most ferocious and deadly fighters ever to wield a blade upon our warlike planet, and yet to those he loves, he has always been the gentlest and kindest of men. 
> 
> "But how did you escape?" asked Thuvan Dihn, as his men working on the fliers below cut the grappling rope and prepared to sail one captured vessel home and return the other to Eparsa for use as a symbolic funeral pyre, for of course Zel Toma's body could not be recovered. 
> 
> "Yes, how?" echoed my father, releasing me. "And where is the warrior in Eparsan dress whom we saw piloting your flier? Who was it rescued you? No reward would be too great!" 
> 
> Smiling brightly, I began to raise a hand and indicate Thuvia, eager to describe her deeds, that all might admire her as I did. But it came to me then, surrounded by the familiar warriors of Helium, and the strangers of Ptarth, under the eyes of my father and Thuvan Dihn, that the events which had seemed so natural and grand in the pulse-pounding heat of our escape would sound odd and unbelievable, even bizarre, were I to report them here. I could see in my mind's eye the whispers and giggles as the story went around the court of Helium of a girl who had dueled a jed with a naked blade held in her own hands. Were I to report all the events of the last day and night to this assemblage of stern fighting men, would they even believe my words? Would they call me a liar, or laugh at my Thuvia, belittling her brave deeds? I could not bear that injustice! I must protect her from such treatment, sheltering our strange idyll from uncomprehending eyes. 
> 
> "I was rescued by Ban Tham, a padwar of Ptarth, who changed his metal and swore to the service of Helium," I said in clear tones. "Ever he treated me with the greatest respect, and took many risks to carry me once more to safety from the clutches of our pursuers." 
> 
> A look of great interest entered my father's eyes, for he saw how fervently I spoke, and I believe he sensed a potential husband for his daughter in this story, and a new blade to join the others at his side. "Where is this noble padwar, that I may grasp his shoulder in greeting?" he asked, scanning again the deck of our flier anchored below, for the cabin had not yet been searched.
> 
> I raised my chin, as Thuvia's eyes at last met mine. "He fell to his death from the side of the flier, having killed Zel Toma in a fair combat," I explained. "I had not called him my chieftain; but it was in my heart." This was the closest I could come to telling my father the absolute truth, in a way that he might yet understand. 
> 
> I saw a shadow fall across Thuvia's fair face then, a look of finality. And suddenly I understood that, had I told the full story, even unto the vows we had carelessly exchanged—for could such be binding, falling as they did outside all tradition and sense?—she would have stood by me openly, borne any mockery or disbelief that we encountered, and claimed me as her princess before the heads of two nations. Great difficulties would have arisen, but what had I ever asked my father for and been denied? The two of us, perhaps, had we been stubborn enough, might have struck a new path together, and created a new legend for the historians to relate in future ages.
> 
> Knowing what I know now, that my beloved John Carter would one day make his mysterious advent upon Barsoom, rescuing me from the vicious clutches of the green men, and become at length my husband and the father of my two children, I cannot regret the choice I made that day, nor the impulse that moved me to protect that precious thing we had shared from other eyes; and yet at the time, I knew a sense of confusion and shame. 
> 
> My father too bowed his head, and he and Thuvan Dihn, as well as all the troops within earshot, performed a brief but heartfelt salute to a brave warrior lost. "I am sorry to hear it," my father said. "Well, say farewell for now to your young friend, and then come to my ship, and we will all return to Ptarth for the night before heading north in the morning, for I believe this tour has gone on long enough, and I wish to see the bright double walls of Helium gleaming under the noon sun once more." 
> 
> With a last touch of his hand upon his daughter's shoulder, Thuvan Dihn drew away as well, and Thuvia and I were briefly left alone together on the deck of the battleship, although watched by both the crews. I hardly knew what to say. The dizzying events of the last day had moved me as I had rarely been moved, and I, unlike Thuvia, had always been quick to feel and express that which crossed my heart and mind. And yet my father's will was clear, and I had never questioned it. Feeling as though I were either awakening from a dream or falling once more into sleep, I knew not which, I gazed at the girl as she approached, and with an expression of grave friendliness, took my hand. She closed her eyes. 
> 
> I rose on tiptoe to give Thuvia of Ptarth a last sisterly salute upon the cheek, but she lifted her long black lashes again and I could see at once by the shadows in her eyes that she was far from me, standing only partly in this world of fighting ships, and partly in whatever mystic dimension she wandered, where the minds of animals moved to her bidding and strange intuitions troubled or calmed her spirit. They seemed to have done both, now, as she let go my hand and spoke. "We shall meet again," she said quietly, for our ears alone, and I gave a glad cry, but she continued as if she did not hear. "But never again as lovers. And yet we will both know love—love that could destroy nations, or save a world." 
> 
> I knew not what to say, and could only clasp my hands before my breast and wait, torn between tears and a kind of painful solemnity. She continued: "Great suffering and great joy will be the lot of Dejah Thoris, ere we meet again, and I—I—" She faltered, and would not speak, though I saw in her eyes that she had seen something in her future, too dark and terrible to relate. 
> 
> I touched her cheek in helpless sympathy, and she smiled. Unable to bear it, I turned from her, looking up and out at the hovering ships that waited to take me away. Beside me, Thuvia whispered once more, "Courage, Princess." 
> 
> I was taken aback at her words; it is true I felt unsettled by the sight, as though the mighty metal ships were beasts waiting to swallow me up, and yet it made no sense, for in the greatest of those ships waited my father, and the protection of the strongest fighting force in the world. They would return me to my native Helium, the people of which loved me, ever offering new proofs of their affection, and where my father and grandfather doted on me and indulged my every whim. I was returning to a life of luxury and ease; what need had I for courage?
> 
> I turned back to the tall, slim girl beside me, whose gentle manner masked the soul of a hero. Her wandering spirit would chafe at her bounds, until it led her at last to the dark destiny of which she could not speak. Whereas I, Dejah Thoris, daughter of a thousand jeddaks... I loved her. I also loved my father, my grandfather, my mother; our lineage; our people; our palaces and armies, our brave warriors and fair maids; our courtly dances and martial sports, my jewels and ornaments and furs. 
> 
> And yet, perhaps one day I would find a love for which I would willingly turn my back on my father, my people, even defy the most basic laws of our world and the Holy Therns themselves.* But if Thuvia, maid of Ptarth, was not the one, I began to suspect that no child of Barsoom could so move me.
> 
> And until that day—indeed!—what need had I for courage? 
> 
>   
> END
> 
> * * *
> 
> _[*The further adventures of Dejah Thoris and the man from Earth, John Carter, whom she came to love, will be told in  
> _ A Princess of Mars _, the stirring tale soon to be published by B----- Books.  
>  —ed.]_   
> 

 


End file.
